Manika Batra starred with three wins across formats while veteran Achanta Sharath Kamal bowed as the main draw of the World Table Tennis Star Contender, India's first-ever WTT, got underway in Goa on Wednesday.
Manika first won her women's singles Round of 64 match and then partnered Archana Kamath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran to reach the quarter-finals of the women's and mixed doubles respectively.
Sutirtha Mukherjee was the other Indian to win all her matches on the day, in the women's singles and doubles.
In the morning session, Sharath and Sathiyan Gnanasekaran lost their men's doubles round of 16 match to Koreans Jaehyun An and Seungmin Cho 3-1. Then in the final match of the day, rising Kazakh star Kirill Gerassimenko defeated the reigning Commonwealth Games champion in straight games in a blow to home fans.
Manika, the highest ranked Indian in women's singles, got off to a flying start early, defeating 152nd ranked Englishwoman Ho Tin-Tin 3-0. She then partnered Archana to a hard-fought 3-2 win over the Hong Kong, China, pairing of Li Ching Wan and Zhu Chengzhu, after being 0-2 down at one stage to the qualifiers. In the evening session, she and Sathiyan prevailed over the Korean pair of Lim Jonghoon and Shin Yubin 3-1.
"I am really happy that this tournament WTT Star Contender is happening for the first time in India.... Mixed doubles were really tough as we have lost against them twice before. But this time we won, and I am really happy with that win," Manika said after the win.
"I think by far I would rate this as one of the best ever mixed doubles win. They are a very solid pair, technically they are very strong and they have been winning back to back tournaments in WTT events," Sathiyan added.
In the men's singles, Sathiyan (WR 41) took out a fighting Harmeet Desai (WR 142) in four games while the only Indian pair to win on the day was that of Harmeet Desai and Manav Thakkar, who beat fellow Indians Ronit Bhanja and Jeet Chandra 3-2 (9-11,11-8,8-11,11-6,11-5)
Other Indian results
In the women's singles, Sutirtha beat Suhana Saini in four games before winning her opening doubles match with Ayhika Mukherjee. The Indian pair beat the Egyptian-Polish pair of Natalia Bajor and Yousra Helmy 3-0 to make the last eight. They now play the crack Swedish pair of Linda Bergstrom and Christina Karllberg, who were comfortable 3-0 winners against India's Poymantee Baisya and Anannya Basak.
Yashaswini Ghorpade went down to world No 38 Miyu Nagasaki 0-3 while Sreeja Akula lost to world No 39 Hana Goda of Egypt 1-3. In the women's doubles, Sreeja Akula and Diya Chitale, who went down to the Chinese Taipei pair of Cheng I-Ching and Li Yu-Jhun 0-3. Cheng is ranked as high as 31 in the world in women's singles. Tejaswini Ghorpade and Suhana Saini were also ousted by the Korean duo of Nayeong Kim and Cheonhui Joo in four games.
In the mixed doubles as well, two Indian pairs - Wesley Do Rosario and Suhana Saini and Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath - lost to more experienced opponents in the round of 16.